i never thought this day would come...

i discovered something today...


the internet is not the absolute for information.

blast.


we discovered this when we couldn't find a splash park in ivins, ut online and then drove around (ivins isn't very big) until we found a park--and it had a splash park in it.  we were torn between joy and devastation.  anyway...

i didn't take pictures the first day we went (yesterday...and yes we do plan on going everyday we're here--it's SO hot here, and it hasn't even hit SUMMER yet!), but i did take pictures today with my phone.  we weren't planning on getting wet, but we did anyway--this is why he has regular clothes on.

this was my favorite part of today:  we've been bringing porter's sippy around everywhere so he stays hydrated (he doesn't care--i don't know why we do...).  he brought it into the water park with him.  there's a button the kids push every once in a while to tell the park they're still there to keep the water running.  this button makes a noise...of course it does.  this shows the order of importance to porter.

picture 1: porter sacrificing his body to get soaked so he can push the button

picture 2: porter fleeing before the water near the sippy because while buttons that make noise are worth getting wet, sippies are OBVIOUSLY worth abandoning at the first sign of discomfort.

and just some more:

This Is the Christ

I've been listening to this song almost everyday this week. I've loved it for so long, and I have yet to get tired of hearing it. We sang it in graduation choir when I graduated, and they sang it at last month's General Conference Sunday Morning (Easter...perfect) Session. In the last run-through before our performance at graduation I started to actually listen to the words and let them touch my heart and the line "how many drops of blood were spilled for me" just killed me. I still cry almost every time it gets to that part in the song. Here's the link for the Conference performance, and below are the words. I just like them so much, and I like so much that President Faust wrote the words--I have a big part of my heart especially for that Presidency.

They heard his voice, a voice so mild,
It pierced them through and made their souls to quake.
They saw Him come, a man in white,
The Savior, who had suffered for their sake.
And each could testify:

This is the Christ.
This is the Christ, the Holy Son of God,
Our Savior, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.
This is the Christ, the Healer of our souls,
Who ransomed us with love divine.

I read His words, the words He prayed,
While bearing sorrow in Gethsemane.
I feel His love, the price He paid.
How many drops of blood were spilled for me?
With Saints of old in joyful cry,
I too can testify:

This is the Christ.
This is the Christ, the holy Son of God,
Our Saviour, Lord, Redeemer of mankind.
This is the Christ, the healer of our souls,
Who ransomed us with love divine.

I used to have a solid loyalty to Del Parson's painting of Christ, but since the Christ Ensign issue I have branched out. Here are some of my favorites. (there are, of course, so many more but I can't get the pdf of the Christ Ensign issue to load so I can't find the artist names...)

Artists: Heinrich Hoffman (top left), Del Parson (top right), Minerva Teichert (bottom left), J Kirk Richards (bottom right). I saw the bottom right one in real life--it is at least 10 feet tall and there is gold leaf on Christ's and the angel's halo, and around in different areas. It's so beautiful.

porter can

porter can say:
dog
dad
mom
cat
moon
moo
yeah
bubble (kinda)
banana (nana)

porter can:
make a fish face
beat his chest like king kong when we ask him what a gorilla does
give you a high five
clap when you ask him what a seal does
make an elephant noise
make a car noise (vroooom)
point to an airplane
get something and put it somewhere if we ask him
throw a ball
kick a ball
wave goodbye
wave hello (different waves)
give you a kiss
a hug
snuggle (laying down)
give loves (pretty much snuggling standing up)
blow in your face and laugh about it
smile (shows teeth, but does not actually smile)
blink
dance
snap (not really, it looks like he's doing it to the rhythm of the song)
walk backwards
pretend to count how many fingers he has
show you his feet
belly button
hair
nose (picks nose)
mouth
tongue
teeth
eyes
ears (sometimes)

...i'm sure there are more.

BIG Announcement.

You're going to be disappointed...

Porter has officially grown out of being allergic to milk!

I made him homemade macaroni & cheese with butternut squash today! It was great!...until he wouldn't eat it. BLAST.

My whole world has to be rethunk because I've spent the last 16 months NOT letting him have milk...

Bubbles with Grandma

We did bubbles with Grandma Bodily on Saturday--the pictures are just kinda fun. Most of the time, though, he just looks like he hates us.

 

Dedicated to my Grandma

My Grandma Elaine's birthday is today, and I couldn't think of a better way to tell her Happy Birthday than to shout it from the rooftops (or through the internet cable...) that I think she's a wonderful, a very classy lady, and I love her.

Facts about Grandma:

• Had the 1st computer when it came out--is super good with electronics and always has been.
• Always up for exciting new adventures!
• Works at the Provo Temple.
• Spends lots of time taking care of her family.
• Does enormous amounts of genealogy!
• I chose her first name as my middle name because I love her so much.
• She loves her family and they love her back.

This is when she got married--gorgeous, right?

She always made it a priority to come to our big deal events (like Priesthood ordinations) even though they lived far away.

Her family.

Feeding Porter in the outfit she bought him!

First time meeting Porter, and loving him!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Elaine!

Nutritional Visitor!

Our friend Sarah just graduated in Nutrition at SUU, and came down to present for a research conference and we had a blast! We went to Sprinkles (I had the dark chocolate one, Sarah had the coconut one, and Porter had the vegan [meaning no animal products, which includes milk]), the beach (Corona del Mar) with SUPER cool fire pits ON THE BEACH, walked around Downtown Disney (which I had never been to before), and found out that all Starbucks in the Anaheim area close at 10:30...stupid. I don't have any pictures, but she did on their great blog here.

Go check it out!

Raising Tips for Porter

I get weekly emails from Babycenter.com that tell me different things about how Porter's developing, tips on ways to play with him, etc.  This week's email was perfect for what I've been frustrated with him lately.  Here are some ideas:

• Most consistent idea:  Give him a choice.  Whether it's between grapes or a banana, give him a choice so that it's him who chooses he wants to eat a banana.  So if you want him to take a bath, give him a choice between the toy he wants to play with.  If you want him to put on clothes, let him chose between a green shirt or a red shirt.
• Give him the appearance of a choice:  Do you want to get out of the car now, or play for two minutes and then get out of the car?  No matter what he'll be getting out of the car but it's making him feel like he has control about his life.
• As long as he has a balanced diet over a week or a month's time, he's going to be fine.  Work on getting him 5 fruits and vegetables each day, but if it doesn't happen--that's just fine.
• Some days he'll eat lots and some days he won't eat anything.  That's just fine.
• When he wants to say "no" to everything, find ways to distract him from saying no.  Here's an example: My 2 1/2-year-old won't always cooperate — no surprise! For instance, I'll ask him to sit down to eat and he'll say "No!" and laugh, and start dancing around instead. That used to make me mad (okay, it still does), but I try to laugh back and say something like, "What's going on there, Legs? You tell Bottom to sit right in that chair!" That makes him laugh and breaks his defiant mood. — Jan, Minnesota
• Take advantage of the "me do it" attitude.  He wants to do everything himself because he wants to be independent, so make a big deal about him doing it himself.

I dunno...a lot of people have different ways of raising children, but these seem to be consistent with the way I'm raising Porter.  Hope it's helpful for you!

girlfriends

i'm too tired to type out the wonderful activities that happened with ladie and miss britt came to visit me (just a few days apart!) during the fantastic month of march, but here are some pictures to illustrate how delightful it was. also, i started off editing the pictures from ladie's visit, and was too tired to make the ones from britt even more spectacular than they are, so i'm sorry about that too...

job update

we thought we had something in valencia...no go.

we're going to the temple tuesday...hopefully we'll have an update on what the plan is after that.

Body Type?

We had some friends over Sunday night and our friend Tanya (aka Jasmine) was one of them and she looked so cute!  The next day I wanted to see if I could look as cute, so I tried a similar outfit, and every time I saw myself in a reflection I was like "Oh my gosh--what is going on here..."  Which led me to the question, what the heck was I doing that is different from her?  Well, I would have to say that our bodies are completely different, so I wondered what clothes make me look good?  So I went online to find out my body type by going here and typing in my measurements.  I am a "spoon" body type (sounds horrible, doesn't it?)...it means I'm small on top and big on bottom, which I had NEVER thought, but then I went on another site talking about body types and they said "The typical spoon measurements are...." and they were MY MEASUREMENTS!  Whhaaaat?  Along with the website were good and bad ways to work out for your body type, and so I've started to do try the "good ways" today.  We'll see what happens, but the question is,

do you know your body type?

Ruffles, Tandem, and a Great Weekend!

Birthdays

Having Jordan and my birthday pretty close together is really fun, but it also makes it easy to keep it fair.  We have decided that for our birthdays--it's up to the birthday person to decide how the birthday budget is going to be used and how the day is going to be spent!

Since my birthday was first, we'll start with mine!  I just kept telling Jordan that I was going to worry about my birthday and that he wouldn't have to worry about it, but he didn't believe me until he woke up that morning and saw that I already had our lunches packed, the diaper bag ready, was showered and make-upped, and was ready to go!  I'm trying to live it up that we're in Los Angeles so we went to the California Science Center!  It's a museum with lots of hands on stuff that gets you to interested and excited about the science in the world around us!  To get an idea of the kind of place it is, here's what's even just outside the museum.  It's a lever where you can lift a truck!  If you look closely you can see the truck is off the ground, just by Jordan pulling on it!  It was a blast.  There was a space/air museum in another building that was also part of it, and that was so neat!  After that, we went to Santa Monica Pier, rented bikes and rode around for an hour or so.  We then walked on the beach, got a little wet, put on warm clothes and walked along the Pier.  We were going to go to dinner, but I didn't really want to, so we went to Costco and got ravioli and pot stickers (pretty much the same thing, but from different countries).  We came home and they were fantastic!  Jordan's mom made me cupcakes and we blew out a candle!  All in all, it was a wonderful birthday!

 

And now for Jordan's birthday!  There's a donut place a few miles away that Jordan really likes, so I went before he got up and got him some.  There's a trail above Jordan's house that he wanted to hike so that's what we did!  It was a blast.  Jordan hadn't been up this one trail since he was like, 11, when he and some buddies got a door, dragged it up the mountain, and started to build a tree house.  The next day they all got poison oak so they never went back, but we found the tree house and the door was still there!  We put Porter in his carrier and he was happy for part of it, but really wanted to walk around so when we got to the top we let him get out.  The hike took up a good chunk of the day, so by the time we got home it was time for dinner!  Jordan's favorite food of all time is crab, and he went on his mission to Louisiana (the GLBRM), so The Boiling Crab was the answer!  You order the seafood you want (there's shrimp, crab, crawfish, salmon...and I'm sure there are others), order the spices, they cook it in a bag, and bring it out in a bag!  There's wax paper on the table which replaces plates, and while it's very messy it's soooooooo good!  Jordan got 1 1/2 pounds of crab, and I got 2 lbs of crawfish, both of which we split.  It was so yummy and I wish we could go everyday.  One of Jordan's favorite ice creams is chocolate malt crunch from Rite Aid (um....what?) so I made an ice cream cake with chocolate ice cream, broken up whoppers, oreos, and whipped cream.  I think he had a good birthday too, and Porter and I had a blast too!